This from a Spanish news source, translated by me
http://www.agrodigital.com/PlArtStd.asp?CodArt=62098

13/2/2009

10 years of research on CCD

The Research Group for Applied Separation and Analysis Techniques
(TESE), part of Cinquima College (Center for Innovation in Chemistry
and Advanced Materials) in Valladolid, Spain, has spent nearly a
decade working with the Regional Apiculture Center (RAC) of Marchamalo
in Guadalajara, in the study of "colony collapse disorder", a
phenomenon that has caused millions of honeybees to disappear
worldwide.

The causes of this disorder were not clear until the year 2003, when
this group of researchers sounded the alarm by pointing to the
microsporidan Nosema ceranae as the causative agent of the hives which
were practically empty despite having sufficient pollen and honey to
survive.

In addition to Europe and America, the disorder has spread to other
parts of the world and Nosema ceranae cases have already appeared in
countries such as Australia and Tasmania.

Since the discovery of this microsporidan behind the disorder, the
group coordinated by Dr Jose Luis Bernal has worked mainly in the
study of a remedy to combat it. They have designed an effective
treatment based on an antibiotic, fumagillin.

Specifically, investigations are focusing on studying the stability of
the compound, the degradation products left in honey, and the
appropriate amount and frequency of administration of the product to
be effective and not leave residues.

The antibiotic was initially tested with powdered sugar, but it was
found that, while in the laboratory was effective, "the hives went
bad." And finally, after both laboratory and field tests, it was
determined that the most suitable method is administration of the drug
mixed in syrup.

"We have established the appropriate dose and frequency, that
revitalizes the hives and they are producing honey more than before,"
says Bernal. In parallel, the group intends to continue studies and to
seek alternatives to avoid resistance to antibiotics, because with
this treatment, the hives usually recover after a few weeks.

Given the seriousness of the problem in the case of Spain, for
example, where about 50% of hives have disappeared mainly due to this
cause, there have been postulated very varied scientific hypothesis at
an international level.

The most widely attributed cause of the emergence of CCD is the use of
certain pesticides. This has led the group coordinated by José Luis
Bernal to develop a methodology for the analysis of these compounds
and apply it to samples of honey and pollen to demonstrate that this
was NOT the main reason since in the majority of cases residue levels
are well below the detection limit of the most sensitive analytical
techniques currently in use.

Although even in 1999 they began to detect weakness and subsequent
death of the hives, it was in 2004 when the major outbreak of the
disorder occurred.

At that point, the Guadalajara Regional Center of Apiculture began
receiving an annual average of over 3,000 samples, which were added
they began to send researchers from other countries.

It was then that they began to check into the loss of bees without
appearance of dead ones around the hives, the non-replacement of the
queen, who was left with few bees despite having stored food. With
systematic study, Nosema ceranae was found.

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